China has overtaken the US as Japan's biggest trading partner for the first time since World War II, the Japanese finance ministry has revealed. Japan's total trade with China totalled 25.43 trillion yen ($215bn; £107bn) in the year to 31 March, it said. The trade is being driven in part by Japanese firms shifting manufacturing work to China to take advantage of cheap labour costs there. The figure for the US in the same period was 25.16 trillion yen. The figures were released as the finance ministry said Japan's trade surplus widened 74% from a year earlier to a fresh record high for March. Japan's trade surplus, the difference between what it exports and imports, hit 1.633 trillion yen last month, buoyed by a weaker yen and exports to China. Market expectations had been for a surplus of 1.36 trillion yen. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

Astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, a world which could have water running on its surface. The planet orbits the faint star Gliese 581, which is 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra. Scientists made the discovery using the Eso 3.6m Telescope in Chile. They say the benign temperatures on the planet mean any water there could exist in liquid form, and this raises the chances it could also harbour life. "We have estimated that the mean temperature of this 'super-Earth' lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, & water would thus be liquid," explained Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory, lead author of the scientific paper reporting the result. "Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth's radius, & models predict that the planet should be either rocky - like our Earth - or covered with oceans." Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University, added: "Liquid water is critical to life as we know it." ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6589157.stm

U.S. Hispanics view religious and political life as intertwined, often worship in ethnic congregations and embrace a spirit-filled, charismatic style of Christianity, a new survey says. The trends cross Roman Catholic and Protestant lines and signal significant shifts in the U.S. religious landscape, considering the explosive growth of the Hispanic population, according to the survey released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Hispanic Center. When it comes to political loyalties, religion trumps ethnicity: Hispanic Catholics, who make up two-thirds of the Hispanic population, are solidly Democratic. But born-again or evangelical Hispanics, at 15 percent of the Hispanic population and rising, favor Republicans, though by a much narrower margin. The bilingual survey involved 4,600 interviews from August to October last year and is billed as one the most detailed looks ever at Hispanics and U.S. public life. It has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3077451

Shelling and machine-gun fire shook the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday for an eighth day as residents continued to flee a government offensive to crush Islamist insurgents and clan militia.Residents said Wednesday's fighting was lighter than previous days, as allied Somali-Ethiopian forces take on rebels frustrating the interim government's bid to restore central rule in the Horn of Africa nation for the first time in 16 years. "The shelling is still going on, but it is less heavy than yesterday. But it is still too dangerous to venture out," said one resident who asked not to be named. Local residents and human rights workers say nearly 300 people have been killed in a week of fighting that has focused on an Islamist stronghold in the north of the city. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3077538

Defeated French centrist Francois Bayrou has said he will not back either of the remaining candidates in the French presidential election. Mr Bayrou came third in Sunday's first round with 18% of the vote. He said he could not back either candidate as their current policies would not help the country. Nicolas Sarkozy, who took 31.2% of the vote, and Segolene Royal - 25.9% - are both standing in the second round of the election on Sunday 6 May. Mr Bayrou said he had accepted Ms Royal's offer to hold a political debate, and said he would accommodate a similar request from Mr Sarkozy should it be forthcoming. "I will not give any advice on how to vote," he said at a long-awaited news conference. When asked what his personal vote would be, he said he had not made up his mind yet. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6591461.stm

About 70 homes were evacuated and authorities briefly closed a highway early Wednesday after a wildfire spreading through a swamp moved toward communities south of Waycross. A 35-mile stretch of U.S. 1 was initially closed to traffic, though portions of the highway were later reopened, said Tracy Smith, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. The fire crossed state Route 177 and was threatening the small communities of Astoria and Braganza about three miles south of Waycross, Smith said. Waycross, a city of 15,300, was not in immediate danger, she said, though heavy smoke covered the city. Wildfires have burned 53,000 acres, or about 67 square miles, of forest parched by drought in southeast Georgia in the past nine days....http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/04/25/georgia.wildfire.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us